Thursday: It’s Hard Out Here For a Memorial Designer

In the course of Nicolai Ouroussoff’s recap of the Ground Zero memorial fisasco he politely suggests that architect Michael Arad “could consider stepping aside,” and less politely declares: “Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg got it exactly wrong.” (The New York Times)

And yesterday’s Daily News reported that a federally banned construction company is working (for millions of dollars) at Ground Zero. And the guys have lots of explosives. If even a turncoat nicknamed Mikey Scars says that a group is mobbed up, shouldn’t Larry Silverstein listen? His spokesman doesn’t seem to think so.(New York Daily News)

NYC’s share of middle-income families is smaller than any other American city’s (except, of course, LA), and our middle-income neighborhoods are “vanishing.” The culprits are gentrification (even in “more marginal” areas) and the “bunching of high-income families in more homogenous surroundings.” Brave rich people always stick together. (The New York Times)

Might another culprit be the growing slice of residents’ gross income that rents demand? The local numbers are passing the disturbing “maximum threshold,” which means three out of ten dollars earned by New Yorkers go to the landlord. (The Real Deal)